Fisher paid $50 mil to Finny and $30 mil to Cookie, and ole what's his face Schiano from Rutgers is now the HC for Tampa Bay. Someone could pay him. I'm fine with letting Britt play out this season, and then getting a comp pick in FA. Hopefully he finishes strong, and we can get a 4th from his contract. Especially since he's been out of trouble for a while.

It seemed like the writing was on the wall when we traded up for Hunter. Lets stick with the plan of starting Britt and letting Hunter be brought along with no rush. Let Britt hit FA, collect a comp pick, and draft us some Jordan Matthews sexyness in the draft.

Here are the things I'm on the lookout for this week against the Jets...

DEFENSE1. I feel like this is something that we talk about every week, but we really need our DL to get consistent pressure on rookie QB Geno Smith. Again, I don't think that has to come in the way of sacks per se; however, we need to make him uncomfortable and force him to make quick (and bad) decisions with the football. Smith has looked better during the season than many thought he would, after a lackluster offseason and preseason. But he's shown that, like many rookies, he's prone to turn the ball over.

2. The Jets also want to run the ball with the combination of RBs Bilal Powell and Chris Ivory -- though, Ivory is out this week against us. Last week, Powell had a good week running the ball and it helped open things up for Smith in the passing game. Our DEF has looked good against the run this year for the most part, so we need to continue that trend this week. Again, if we can take away the running game, this is yet another opportunity to up the pressure on their young QB.

3. Beware Stephen Hill. He's got some serious size/speed combo. My guess is that McCourty will draw Santonio Holmes in coverage, which could put us in a tough situation with the smaller, slower Verner matching up with Hill. (Verner's more quick than fast, as they say, and I wouldn't bet on him to keep up with Hill on any deep routes.) This means that Griffin is going to have to do his job to help Verner over-the-top and not take bad angles, as he's been prone to do in the past. So far, Griffin has played well this season, so let's hope that continues.

OFFENSE:1. Find the right balance of running and passing. This Jets' DEF has been very tough so far this year -- although they've yet to face a great offense. (And no...I don't think the Patriots -- without Gronkowski, Vereen, and Amendola -- qualify as a "great offense.") However, they've been especially tough against the run. I think it's important that we don't give up on the running game this week; but I also think it's important to recognize when the running game isn't working and be quick to adapt to more passing as necessary. (This is the fourth time in four weeks that Locker will have seen a 3-4 DEF, so he should be pretty good at recognizing it at this point.) This may also be a good week to utilize some QB-run playcalls, as the Bills had some success last week with E.J. Manuel running.

2. Utilize the TEs this week in the passing game. The Jets have a solid, young core of CBs with Antonio Cromartie, Dee Miliner, and Kris Wilson. And I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to keep our WRs in check for much of the day. However, their LBs are more rushers than coverage guys. Last week, the Bills had success with their TE Scott Chandler; and the Patriots also had success with WR Julian Edelman, who the Pats use out of the slot on short routes, similar to a TE (despite his small stature). Obviously, our TE spot is in some flux because Walker is questionable this week; but if he can play, then that would give us our offense a big boost. Even if Walker's out, I hope that we can find ways to use Stevens, Thompson, and Wright on those short routes by forcing their LBs into coverage over the middle of the field.

3. This is the biggest concern this week: LIMIT THE PENALTIES! This is especially true along the OL and on ST. The interior OL will have their hands full this week against DT Muhammed Wilkinson, who's been playing like a mad man during the first few weeks of the season. He'll be an extremely difficult matchup for Turner on his own, so we'll need to make sure to help him out with Warmack/Levitre. Also, as the Jets are sure to bring outside rushers, we'll need to be careful to use CJ, Mooney, Walker, etc. to help Stewart out, as he tends to struggle with faster rushers. After the STs disastrous play last week, I'd encourage Reynaud to call for a fair-catch every time -- as our ST blockers have had trouble with the yellow flags. Basically, we can't commit 10+ penalties this week against this Jets team and expect to win.

Fisher paid $50 mil to Finny and $30 mil to Cookie, and ole what's his face Schiano from Rutgers is now the HC for Tampa Bay. Someone could pay him. I'm fine with letting Britt play out this season, and then getting a comp pick in FA. Hopefully he finishes strong, and we can get a 4th from his contract. Especially since he's been out of trouble for a while.

It seemed like the writing was on the wall when we traded up for Hunter. Lets stick with the plan of starting Britt and letting Hunter be brought along with no rush. Let Britt hit FA, collect a comp pick, and draft us some Jordan Matthews sexyness in the draft.

Unless we taking Matthews in the first sadly we won't have a shot
at him :(

Wish I could appareicate our dominating performance, but the Locker injury really is devastating. Things really seemed to be clicking for him and it seemed like the coaching staff was beginning to really open things up for him.

I just heard "a few weeks" on a timetable and it's a "muscle strain". I have no idea how accurate any of this is.

The best thing about this week, other than demolishing the Jets, is watching the Texans lose. First off, Schaub isn't very good and I never thought he was. But at least he was efficient and didn't turn the ball over. That was a horrible throw, horrible play call etc, it's great seeing Texan "fans" burning Schaubs jersey and calling for the backup.

Things will only get better if they lose to the 49ers next week.

On the negative side, Locker did get hurt. It's disappointing, especially since I was looking forward to seeing us at full power against the undefeated Chiefs.

I heard that Sylvester Stallone wrote The Expendables with The Alex in mind. He had to keep it realistic though and split The Alex's abilities into multiple characters. Stallone thought that critics would pan it for being too far-fetched if he just had one character effing everyone up.

I just heard "a few weeks" on a timetable and it's a "muscle strain". I have no idea how accurate any of this is.

The best thing about this week, other than demolishing the Jets, is watching the Texans lose. First off, Schaub isn't very good and I never thought he was. But at least he was efficient and didn't turn the ball over. That was a horrible throw, horrible play call etc, it's great seeing Texan "fans" burning Schaubs jersey and calling for the backup.

Things will only get better if they lose to the 49ers next week.

On the negative side, Locker did get hurt. It's disappointing, especially since I was looking forward to seeing us at full power against the undefeated Chiefs.

That division seems to be tightening up a bit although this injury to Jake could set things back. The Colts might just pull away with it. Schaub is really not that good. He puts up some decent numbers but he can't avoid turnovers, at least yesterday, and he isn't going to make the big plays at the end of the game to win anything. Contrast that with a Russell Wilson who was mediocre all day and then started running all over a fatigued defense at the end. If i were the Texans i'd draft Johnny Manziel but whatever.

The Info coming from the team about Locker is flowing like mud. There is obviously some damage there to his hip but who really knows how long something like that would take to heal. I think it would be dumb to put him on IR and only hope to get him back for the last month. Very sad because him along with his receiving corps were really starting to gel.

Locker reportedly out 4-8 weeks. We really need the run game to step up in order to come out ok during this stretch. It's really disappointing Shonn Greene is still injured and is still looking at a few weeks out himself.

We are looking at Chiefs, Seahawks, 49ers for a 4 week timetable. And Rams, Jags, Colts, and Raiders for an 8 week.

We really need to come out of the next 3 games at 4-3, the next 4 weeks I could see us going anywhere from 4-0 to 2-2 depending how those teams look when we play then.

Vern is playing out of his mind right now, and it's awesome. If he can keep this up for the full season, it definitely takes CB off of our needs list (unless he plays himself out of our price range).

We have several guys on defense playing the best ball of their life right now. Vern, Morgan, Casey, Brown. McCourty has rebounded from last year. Pollard and Ropati have been solid. Hell, even Griffin has been decent so far - we've been playing him a ton as a single high safety, very noticeable from the stands. Klug has been great in a rotational role as well.

The two players I'd actually like to see step up a bit are Ayers and Fokou. Both need to wrap up and finish tackles better in particular. Ayers I'm hoping is nearly back to 100% after his ankle injury so we can see him attack off the edge a little more.

With how the schedule is set up this year, I'm hoping we will see Locker back after the bye week. That would have him only missing 3 games, but still getting 5 total weeks of no contact and rehab. If that were to happen, and we sneak out at least one win from these next 3 games, then we will still be in solid shape with 5 more divisonal games left.

The pass protection really needs to get cleaned up though. Turner has been awful so far, Warmack has been very shaky in pass pro (although very good in the run game), and Stewart still doesn't look back to form. It also hurt a little to see Sheldon Richardson play so damn well. That was who I wanted us to draft until we signed SLH. He and Casey would've made for a great duo. I was cool with Warmack, but I would like to see him pick up the play as a top 10 overall Guard...

With how the schedule is set up this year, I'm hoping we will see Locker back after the bye week. That would have him only missing 3 games, but still getting 5 total weeks of no contact and rehab. If that were to happen, and we sneak out at least one win from these next 3 games, then we will still be in solid shape with 5 more divisonal games left.

The pass protection really needs to get cleaned up though. Turner has been awful so far, Warmack has been very shaky in pass pro (although very good in the run game), and Stewart still doesn't look back to form. It also hurt a little to see Sheldon Richardson play so damn well. That was who I wanted us to draft until we signed SLH. He and Casey would've made for a great duo. I was cool with Warmack, but I would like to see him pick up the play as a top 10 overall Guard...

From the little Titans action I've been able to see this year, I agree about Turner. Schwenke should be starting.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by phlysac

I heard that Sylvester Stallone wrote The Expendables with The Alex in mind. He had to keep it realistic though and split The Alex's abilities into multiple characters. Stallone thought that critics would pan it for being too far-fetched if he just had one character effing everyone up.

OFFENSE1. Every week we talk about the OL (particularly the interior OL) and how they must play well in order for us to win. This week is no different against a very good Chiefs DEF. Everyone mentions LBs Justin Houston and Tamba Hali; and they're worthy of mentioning. However, I'm actually more worried about DT Dontari Poe, who has freakish speed/power combo and will be matched up against the struggling Turner. Houston and Hali are going to get theirs, and that's OK to an extent. (You don't have to eliminate them from the game altogether -- just limit them.) But if Poe is also providing consistent pressure, then we've got a problem both outside and inside the pocket. Turner better man up this week, or the coaches better make sure that they're using Levitre/Warmack to help.

2. The Chiefs play a lot of man coverage, and they often bring up their safeties in run support. That means that their CBs are consistently on islands where they are one-on-one with their WRs. They've got a good group of CBs in Sean Smith, Brandon Flowers, and Dunta Robinson (even though Flowers is coming back from an injury and Dunta has struggled a little bit). With the exception of Smith, their top CBs are a little on the smallish side. It will be interesting to see how Loggains might use Hunter and Britt to try and take advantage of those one-on-one size mismatches.

3. If Fitzpatrick can limit his mistakes and make a few plays here and there, then the Titans have a good chance against this Chiefs DEF that thrives on turnovers. However, in order for Fitz to do that, it would really help if the running game could get going. Greene is still working his way back from injury, which hurts our chances; so we'll have to rely on CJ and Battle to run smart and effectively. (That means, for CJ, picking the right holes and not trying to break a big run every time. That means, for Battle, lowering his head and not trying to juke the defender.) I hope that Loggains will use his RBs a little more creatively than he's done in recent weeks -- especially with Battle around the goalline and in short yardage. When Battle's been in, it's been obvious that we're running straight ahead, which is fine. But mix in some play-action and some outside runs too to keep the DEF guessing.

DEFENSE1. This week, everything hinges on how well our LBs play. Can Foku, Ayers, Brown, and McCarthy keep Jamaal Charles under control? (Again, Charles is too good to completely eliminate; but if you can limit his impact, then you can control the game.) Charles has been especially lethal in the passing game this year, as he's on pace for nearly 100 receptions. The LBs will also have to keep an eye out for Alex Smith, who's sneakily a threat running the ball and who will often take off -- especially on third downs. If our LBs play well, then that means the Chiefs will have to rely on their WRs, which isn't their strong suit.

2. The Chiefs OL is also susceptible to pressure. This week, they've got mediocre backup RT Donald Stephenson starting in place of rookie Eric Fisher. Morgan will be matched-up against Stephenson for much of the day and will need to get consistent pressure on Smith. Again, though, it's also going to be very important than the DL stay in their lanes and control their gaps because Smith can and will exploit over-pursuits with his legs.

3. Even though Dwayne Bowe has underperformed thus far this season, he's still a big, strong WR who can be difficult for any CB to handle one-on-one. McCourty has played well this season, and Verner has been in beast mode; however, neither can be expected to outmuscle Bowe for the entire game. That means, safeties Griffin, Wilson, and Pollard are going to have to play smart and take good angles in their coverage help. Rather than going for the big hit against Bowe, they need to make sure that they wrap and bring him down.